The Mismeasure of Minds

The Mismeasure of Minds
Author: Michael E. Staub
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2018-09-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 146964360X

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision required desegregation of America's schools, but it also set in motion an agonizing multidecade debate over race, class, and IQ. In this innovative book, Michael E. Staub investigates neuropsychological studies published between Brown and the controversial 1994 book The Bell Curve. In doing so, he illuminates how we came to view race and intelligence today. In tracing how research and experiments around such concepts as learned helplessness, deferred gratification, hyperactivity, and emotional intelligence migrated into popular culture and government policy, Staub reveals long-standing and widespread dissatisfaction—not least among middle-class whites—with the metric of IQ. He also documents the devastating consequences—above all for disadvantaged children of color—as efforts to undo discrimination and create enriched learning environments were recurrently repudiated and defunded. By connecting psychology, race, and public policy in a single narrative, Staub charts the paradoxes that have emerged and that continue to structure investigations of racism even into the era of contemporary neuroscientific research.

The Mismeasure of Man (Revised and Expanded)

The Mismeasure of Man (Revised and Expanded)
Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 458
Release: 2006-06-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0393340406

The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve. When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits. And yet the idea of innate limits—of biology as destiny—dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition Dr. Gould has written a substantial new introduction telling how and why he wrote the book and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve. Further, he has added five essays on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the book's claim to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, "a major contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological 'explanations' of our present social woes."

Measuring the Mind

Measuring the Mind
Author: Denny Borsboom
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2005-05-23
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1139444638

Is it possible to measure psychological attributes like intelligence, personality and attitudes and if so, how does that work? What does the term 'measurement' mean in a psychological context? This fascinating and timely book discusses these questions and investigates the possible answers that can be given response. Denny Borsboom provides an in-depth treatment of the philosophical foundations of widely used measurement models in psychology. The theoretical status of classical test theory, latent variable theory and positioned in terms of the underlying philosophy of science. Special attention is devoted to the central concept of test validity and future directions to improve the theory and practice of psychological measurement are outlined.

The Mismeasure of the Self

The Mismeasure of the Self
Author: Alessandra Tanesini
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198858833

The Mismeasure of the Self is dedicated to vices that blight many lives. They are the vices of superiority, characteristic of those who feel entitled, superior and who have an inflated opinion of themselves, and those of inferiority, typical of those who are riddled with self-doubt and feel inferior. Arrogance, narcissism, haughtiness, and vanity are among the first group. Self-abasement, fatalism, servility, and timidity exemplify the second. This book shows these traits to be to vices of self-evaluation and describes their pervasive harmful effects in some detail. Even though the influence of these traits extends to any aspect of life, the focus of this book is their damaging impact on the life of the intellect. Tanesini develops and defends a view of these vices that puts vicious motivations at their core. The analyses developed in this work build on empirical research in attitude psychology and on philosophical theories in virtue ethics and epistemology. The book concludes with a positive proposal for weakening vice and promoting virtue.

Naming the Mind

Naming the Mind
Author: Kurt Danziger
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 226
Release: 1997-05-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780803977631

In this work, the author explains how modern psychology found its language by examining the historically changing structure of psychological discourse and offering an analysis of the recent evolution of the concepts and categories on which the quality of psychological discourse depends.

The Mismeasure of Desire

The Mismeasure of Desire
Author: Edward Stein
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2001-04-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0195142446

In recent years, scientific research & popular opinion have favoured the idea that sexual orientations are determined at birth, but Edward Stein argues that this may be wrong. This book offers an examination of contemporary thinking on this issue.

A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind

A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind
Author: Robert A. Burton, M.D.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2013-04-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 125002840X

What if our soundest, most reasonable judgments are beyond our control? Despite 2500 years of contemplation by the world's greatest minds and the more recent phenomenal advances in basic neuroscience, neither neuroscientists nor philosophers have a decent understanding of what the mind is or how it works. The gap between what the brain does and the mind experiences remains uncharted territory. Nevertheless, with powerful new tools such as the fMRI scan, neuroscience has become the de facto mode of explanation of behavior. Neuroscientists tell us why we prefer Coke to Pepsi, and the media trumpets headlines such as "Possible site of free will found in brain." Or: "Bad behavior down to genes, not poor parenting." Robert Burton believes that while some neuroscience observations are real advances, others are overreaching, unwarranted, wrong-headed, self-serving, or just plain ridiculous, and often with the potential for catastrophic personal and social consequences. In A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind, he brings together clinical observations, practical thought experiments, personal anecdotes, and cutting-edge neuroscience to decipher what neuroscience can tell us – and where it falls woefully short. At the same time, he offers a new vision of how to think about what the mind might be and how it works. A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind is a critical, startling, and expansive journey into the mysteries of the brain and what makes us human.

Intelligence, Genes, and Success

Intelligence, Genes, and Success
Author: Bernie Devlin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 394
Release: 1997-08-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780387949864

A scientific response to the best-selling The Bell Curve which set off a hailstorm of controversy upon its publication in 1994. Much of the public reaction to the book was polemic and failed to analyse the details of the science and validity of the statistical arguments underlying the books conclusion. Here, at last, social scientists and statisticians reply to The Bell Curve and its conclusions about IQ, genetics and social outcomes.

Standardized Minds

Standardized Minds
Author: Peter Sacks
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2001-01-10
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780738204338

"Standardized Minds" dramatically shows how an unhealthy and enduring obsession with intelligence testing affects everyone. Drawing creative solutions from the headlines and front lines, Sacks demonstrates proven alternatives to such testing, and details a plan to make the American meritocracy legitimate and fair.

The Man Who Could Read Minds

The Man Who Could Read Minds
Author: Paul Seifert
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2001-08-28
Genre:
ISBN: 0595199151

Somebody—call him John Doe—has been shot in the head. With the bullet still lodged in his brain, he has lost his memory, but gained the ability to read minds. This new talent makes him a winner at high-stakes poker, then on the stock market, then as an international mediator for the U.S. government, where he becomes the center of an international intrigue. Finally, his brain flooded with endorphins, Jon Dough realizes that nothing is really as it seams.